Darnelle Forrest, Naire Preston and Kenneth Rankin were prepared to go their separate ways three years ago.
Each had a different destination lined up as Ewing High School seniors when they led the 2022-2023 Blue Devils boys basketball team to a 23-5 record and a Central Jersey Group III championship appearance.
Forrest was headed to Neumann University, Preston was targeting Cabrini College and Rankin was committed to Centenary University.
A year later, they were all together again on the court, integral parts of a turnaround at Centenary.
“I think it really feels the same because we’ve been playing with each other since we was in like third grade,” Rankin said. “So the chemistry we have on the court is unbeatable, like we do things that certain people won’t be able to do because we just have that chemistry.”
Expectations are high for the junior trio, which helped the Centenary men’s basketball team jump to 11 wins last year after a two-win season in 2023-2024.
“They’re the core of everything we do,” said Centenary coach Chris LaBelle. “Those Ewing trio are kind of our core of the team. They’re what our foundation started with, and everything we do kind of branches off of everything that they’ve been working on.”
Rankin, a 6-foot-2 guard, went to the Division III school as he originally planned, and Preston, a 6-foot guard, switched to start at Centenary when he found out Cabrini was closing. Forrest, a 5-foot-11 guard, spent a season at Neumann before transferring to bring the trio back together last year.
“A couple of years ago, I would not imagine this at all,” Preston said. “If you would have told me this is how it would have panned out, I honestly wouldn’t believe you. But it all worked out for the best.”
At Ewing, they were part of transforming the Blue Devils. After a COVID-shortened 4-10 2020-2021 season, they helped power Ewing to a 14-9 season as juniors.
Then, as seniors they took the Blue Devils to their first sectional final since 2017 with Forrest’s game-high 23 points, Preston’s 22 and Rankin’s 15 in the sectional semifinal. Forrest had 25, Preston 22 and Rankin 13 in 78-71 sectional championship loss. But the next year, while Forrest tried to fit in at Neumann, Preston and Rankin battled through the two-win season at Centenary.
Coming out of Ewing, going from a 23-5 team to a 2-win team… it just build that fire for the next season,” he said. He added that the offseason became a chance to reset and fuel a renewed commitment to improvement.
Rankin and Preston were part of a brighter outlook. Rankin played 24 games, starting 21 of them and averaged 11.5 points per game. Preston also played 24 games and made 21 starts and was just behind Rankin at 10.3 points per game while shooting 32 percent from 3-point range. But they wanted to see team success.
Preston said the team’s struggles as freshmen were difficult to endure, but the shared frustration ultimately pushed the group to improve and refuse to repeat that season. “During the season, I would say we were all very frustrated with how the year was going,” he said, noting that the experience motivated the players to come together and raise their standards.
LaBelle was a young interim head coach that year. He was happy to have those two back and thrilled to add Forrest as a transfer. Centenary had jumped at the chance to add Preston when Cabrini wasn’t continuing its program, and Forrest was a big pick-up after the tough season.
“I had a bunch of kids that really, really hated losing, which made the turnaround happen a lot quicker, LaBelle said. “They’re uber talented, but coming from Shelly (Dearden, Ewing coach), they know how to be coached.”
The tough season wasn’t without value. It motivated each of them, and they wanted to learn something from the experience.
Preston said their freshman season felt disjointed as players tried to figure things out individually, but the group grew as LaBelle began trusting them with more responsibility the following year.
“The first year I was feeling like we weren’t all playing as a team,” he said.
He added that the increased trust helped unify the roster and push them to focus on winning.
The trio were instrumental in the turnaround last year. Rankin earned first-team All-Atlantic East Conference after starting 24 games and averaging 14.6 points per game and 5.3 rebounds per game as a guard. Preston averaged 12 points per game and shot 40 percent from 3-point range and his free-throw percentage went up 10 percent while starting 14 of the last 16 games and playing all 25 games.
Forrest had to assimilate to a new team and find his role. It helped to have two teammates from Ewing.
“It was kind of easy basically because I already have them with me,” he said. “And with the other teammates, it was still kind of easy.”
In his first season with the Cyclones, Forrest scored 9.8 points per game, had 42 assists and shot nearly 80 percent from the charity stripe while starting 13 of 21 games he played. The 11 wins put them in the running for a conference crown.
“Kenny transforming his body from freshman to sophomore year was amazing,” said LaBelle, whose staff became the first in program history to be named conference Staff of the Year. “He became first-team all-conference.
‘Naire has taken so many strides from when he stepped on the campus. And I think they both used that first year as motivation to come back even bigger, better, stronger, and just kind of wanted to win.”
“And then Darnell coming in, I think we do things a little differently — we’re really team oriented, we’re really about the details kind of thing — so he’s really bought into that right away.”
Their success last year set them up for a season that began with loftier expectations. They came up short of their title goals last year, but feel more confident in this year’s chances.
“We came a little close, but we kind of fell short in the first round,” said Forrest. “But we beat the team that won the championship during the regular season so it gave us hope that this year we could turn around and win it.”
“We won more games last year and everything, but honestly we felt like it wasn’t enough still, because the ultimate goal is to win a championship,” Preston said. “We’re going to keep doing whatever we got to do to get there and we’re taking it day by day now.”
Centenary began the year 1-2 through three games with a win over FDU-Florham, and they are looking to build momentum as the season goes along. They have established what they can give to the team, with each bringing a little different skill set.
“I just wanted to really just pick up where I left off and do better on the things that I need to improve on last season, like taking care of the ball and getting better at shooting,” Rankin said. “But picking up where I left off, that’s really where I’ve been trying to be, staying in the same mode I’ve been in since last year.”
He’s trying to get teammates more involved as opponents shift some focus to him coming off his all-conference year. He’s grown his role each season for the Cyclones.
“Just being a smarter player and being able to complete my whole game, whether that’s offense, defense, and just being like a leader on the court, talking on defense, getting my teammates ready and just being kind of like a glue piece that we need when things are not going well to get us going,” Rankin said.
Preston is a solid scorer, but he puts special attention into his defense. He wants to be a menace to opposing offenses.
“I want to bring that defensive mindset back to the team,” he said. “One thing I really take pride in is defense. I probably am the guy that hates getting scored on the most. I hate when we get scored on. It’s been like that since high school. I think Coach Shelly drilled that into my brain.”
Forrest is even more established after a season at Centenary under his belt. He returned after enjoying his first year with the Cyclones and hoping to be a bigger part this season.
“With my role, I feel like I can help the team,” he said. “I can organize the offense to be better, add points on the board, get defensive stops, just kind of go out there and play hard.”
The three were catalysts to Ewing’s success in high school, and while they don’t have to score quite as high a percentage of the Cyclones points, they are crucial to the team. Their closeness has been an advantage from the start. The three lived together last year, and they’re in the same building this year.
“I feel like I made a home here at Centenary,” Preston said. “Coaching staff is good. Players are good. Obviously, I have the connection with these two guys here that I’m still with today. So I feel like it all worked out in the end.”
LaBelle has been thrilled to see what they’ve brought to the program. Just as encouraging to him is the way the three have embraced the schoolwork. All three hope to stay in the sports world after graduation. Rankin is hoping to get into coaching or training.
“That’s just been my passion and love since I was little,” he said. “So I want to stick in that field.”
Preston and Forrest are leaning toward the sports management side. Preston would ultimately love to be a general manager or a team owner. Forrest similarly is thinking about getting into coaching or being a general manager.
“I just love sports so much that I just always want to be around it,” Preston said.
Graduation in two years might finally take them on separate paths. That plan was in place three years ago too, but the trio from Ewing found each other together again, playing, studying and thriving once reunited at Centenary.
“I think it’s fun, honestly,” said Forrest. “We all just built a strong connection and just wherever we go, we just know to play hard, know to do our best, and I don’t know who can stop us.”